When, as adults, we reflect back on our childhood, there are often skills and techniques we either didn’t learn at all or learned later in life, but which would have had a very positive and transformative impact on our lives, if we had learned those skills or had those insights while growing up.In my case, one of the practices I wish I had learned at a much earlier age is yoga and meditation.
I didn’t discover yoga until I was about 24 years old, but what it gave me I could certainly have used many years earlier.
Yoga is not just ‘exercise’ and keeping the body fit and flexible, it is also a way of finding an inner peace, of feeling at home in the body. It is a practice for the body, the emotions, the mind and the soul.
In these chaotic times, yoga could be a much-needed addition to the school curriculum.
I have seen that in some places yoga is being taught to children, and I commend that. It is a very positive development.
But on to you:
What did you learn as an adult that you would have benefited from learning and knowing already as a child?
Are there children you can pass on that knowledge, skill or practice? Please share in the comments section below.
A few resources on children and yoga:
Yoga Kids
7 ways kids benefit from doing yoga
This post is written in celebration of the launch of the book I am co-authoring:
How to Teach the Universal Laws To Children: Universal Guidebook for Parents
My daughter is already learning yoga at 9 and I didn’t even know what it was till I was in my late teens. So I love that the kids today are getting a head start. And yes I do wish we had learned sooner…but sooner or later….I’m glad I did 🙂
xoxo,
Z~
I too never learned yoga, meditation or breath work until my 20’s. I didn’t learn about Law of Attraction and the use of Positive Affirmations until my 40’s! How helpful these spiritual practices would have been for me over the years.
Love the idea of teaching kids yoga 🙂
In hindsight, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I studied Plant Spirit Medicine right out of high school.
What I’d love to teach kids and young adults is to follow your heart and not necessarily the status quo.
I wish I had learned what a real partnership and relationship looks like. The way I learned to operate in relationship was modeled after old family patterns of codependency and passive-aggression, and that played out through my twenties. When I finally found an equal partnership with a man who loves and cherishes me, I almost broke up with him five times in the first year because it was so foreign and uncomfortable! Thank goodness our capacity to learn and grow doesn’t diminish with age 🙂 Great post, Marianne, and very thought-provoking.
I wish that I would have never stopped dancing. I started at age 4/5 with ballet. And stopped because the new ballet teacher scared me. I started again with Jazz Dance at age 12 and stopped at 14 because we moved to another country. I started again at 15 and stopped at 16 because I did not feel like I was being challenged at that school. I wish I would have enjoyed professional dance training in one go from age 4/5 until this day!!
I too wish I had known about meditation at a much earlier age too and I started yoga in my 30s imagine how flexible I would have been if I had started in my early years xx